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A Big Upgrade for Emulex

This bullish call comes from more than just one analyst.

Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we use our "This Just In" column to examine some of these picks-- and the track records of the analysts behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.

In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 140,000 members, many of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts do.

After being stuck the past year at no better than a three-star rank, Emulex(NYSE:ELX) recently was upgraded to four stars after enough top-performing CAPS members turned bullish on it. A total of 113 members have given their opinion on the company, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.

Emulex provides networking solutions for data centers, with its products used and sold by enterprise original equipment manufacturers such as Dell(NASDAQ:DELL) and EMC(NYSE:EMC). The stock has picked up momentum in CAPS recently, coming off of a two-star ranking after Broadcom(NASDAQ:BRCM) finally threw in the towel after trying to buy the company. Many CAPS members feel that Emulex will do well on its own and think its debt-free balance sheet and a healthy cash balance make it very competitive.

Since the unsolicited Broadcom bid, Emulex has scored design wins with customers including IBM(NYSE:IBM) and, just recently, Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:HPQ), which could generate significant revenue growth. Despite a drop in its fiscal-fourth-quarter revenue, Emulex managed to sharply narrow its loss compared with last year, while cutting expenses and increasing adjusted gross margins.

But Broadcom, a communications and media chip maker, isn't done with Emulex yet, because it filed a patent infringement suit against Emulex a couple of weeks ago. With Broadcom coming off a recent battle with Qualcomm(NASDAQ:QCOM), lots of lawyers have free time now, and some investors and analysts see a long fight.

Do you think Emulex deserves its new status? Add your thoughts in the comments box below, or head over to CAPS to rate the company and check out all the information and opinions the community offers. CAPS is totally free.

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